Vet Jobs on Wall Street

A bunch of the world's largest banks, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Labor Department will hold a one-day veterans conference and hiring fair Thursday, June 23 at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan.

The first annual Veterans on Wall Street (VOWS) conference, backed by Bank of America, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, "seeks to raise the profile of veterans on Wall Street and highlight the financial services industry as a veteran-friendly employer," according to a press release sent my way by Scott Helfman, who runs PR for Deutsche Bank in New York.

The conference agenda will include breakout sessions for industry-wide sharing of best practices, information sessions for recent military veterans and an evening reception.

The U.S. Chamber said it will hold a job fair along with the conference, part of the nationwide "Hiring Our Heroes" campaign it kicked off last March, which includes job fairs in 100 cities. Registration for the conference can be done online at this website.

I asked Bryan Goettel, a PR guy at the Chamber, how Wall Street firms will view someone with a combat arms specialty, such as a grunt type radio operator, ground Forward Air Controller (FAC) or machine gunner, as a candidate to trade stocks or oil futures.

Goettel said the Chamber works to explain to employers that veterans have developed skills and leadership qualities during their service that makes them good candidates for almost any field, including Wall Street.

It's about time. After Vietnam I found few employers in Manhattan wanted to hire a Marine radio operator and ground FAC cross-trained as a machine gunner, so I ended up as a mailman at the Gracie Station Post Office on the upper East Side.

The now almost forgotten postal strike of 1970 put an end to that career, but provided me with the chance to scout for another job.

I found one, with Reuters, which hired me as a clerk with the chance of promotion to a reporter slot on its newly launched North American financial news wire.

Reuters - which promoted me to reporter after six months - liked the fact the fact that I knew nothing about all Wall Street because, as on editor told me, "you have no preconceived notions."